Her Review

In this day and age we spend so much time on our computers or smart phones and we’ve seen in movies how perhaps one day our computers can talk back to us.

Well can you imaging if someone were to invent an operating system that is so intelligent, it replaces our friends or maybe even our love life? It’s a possibility and in this week’s Her, that very reality is played out on screen though don’t get worried because there is no Skynet or Terminators involved.

The Plot

Spike Jonze takes the helm for this comedy about a withdrawn writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his computer’s highly advanced operating system.

The Verdict.

This movie is set in the distant future and the exact date is not mentioned which is great because it leaves it to your own imagination. It is a peaceful time and the city skyline is just perfect. So that pretty much sets the tone and pace of the movie.

I really wanted to surprise myself with this film, rotten tomatoes gave it like 93% from critics and all I knew about the film was that Joaquin Pheonix was in it. Yes that’s how much I knew and it was intentional I might add. So imagine my reaction when I realised that it was about a guy who falls in love with his highly advanced operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

This is a bold story to tell and just to satisfy your curiosity, yes he does engage in verbal make out with his A.I. It’s not even disgusting at all because it is so possible. Imagine if an A.I. was so perfect that it was better than a woman, apart from having a physical body. It’s a scenario that the introvert inside of us could definitely relate to. All we want is someone to talk to, someone who understands and in this case, the A.I. is so intelligent that she grows in understanding feelings and expresses them in return.

The acting is superb especially from Pheonix and of course you have a great supporting case in the form of Amy Adams who also has a bit of a relationship with an A.I. as well and Olivia Wilde who appears as a love interest (find out how that messes up) but full props for Scarlett Johansson. It’s never easy to express only with your voice when you’re an actor and you don’t appear on screen. As a radio presenter, I really appreciated the way she expressed herself and translated so many evolving emotions as an A.I. as well.

It’s an odd, sad love story, combined with how technology is an accelerator of social loneliness.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

It’s a strange, sincere, sweet and very smart film. Spike Jonze really knows how to create films that test our imaginations. There was a line that stuck out to me “Falling in love is like a form of socially acceptable insanity”